Kids love to play with our tablets. They're colorful, active, and entertaining -- exactly what a kid likes (no matter what age). But many of us don't feel comfortable letting our kids handle a seemingly delicate, very expensive, piece of glass and plastic. Archos gets this, and they have announced the 7-inch ChildPad. Even better, they understand that we're reluctant to spend upwards of $500 on something that youngsters may very break, and have priced it at $129.

Ill let that sink in for a second -- $129.

For the cost of dinner and a movie for two, you can have a full featured tablet, running Android 4.0, complete with a child-friendly app market. While not a spec powerhouse, the ChildPad has a 1GHz CPU and a full 1GB of RAM, and comes pre-loaded with a slew of things kids would want, like puzzles, games, even Angry Birds. The ChildPad was designed to fulfill COPPA and CIPA regulations, and has a full suite of parental controls built into the browser. You'll see it on store shelves sometime in March.

And your kids will have ICS on their Android device before you do. See the press release after the break.

ARCHOS Announces the Child Pad, a 7” ICS Kid-Friendly Tablet

The new Child Pad will provide kid’s a safe, fun, full tablet experience at $129

Denver, CO – March 01, 2012 – ARCHOS, an award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, announced today a themed 7” Android™ tablet for children, called the Child Pad. The 7’’ Child Pad features a compact light weight design, the latest Android version, 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich”, a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. The Child Pad will be available at the end of March for $129 SRP.

“As a pioneer in the portable audio and Android™ tablet market we realize the importance of providing a tablet that can offer hours of entertainment for all ages, especially kids”, says Henri Crohas, Founder and CEO. “ARCHOS strives to offer great tablets with only the best of features at affordable prices and we expect this tablet to bring a smile to the faces of kids and parents’ everywhere.”

Key Features & Benefits
Kid friendly features of the Child Pad include access to the Kids App Store powered by AppsLib which is filtered down to 14-friendly categories and 10,000 apps including games, entertainment, communication, multimedia, books, comics, sports and more.

In addition, ARCHOS has created a kid-friendly user interface with colored icons, home screen folders with direct access to games, entertainment, learning and puzzles and the top 28 kids’ apps pre-loaded including Angry Birds, Pig Rush and Flight Frenzy.

ARCHOS has also designed the Child Pad to comply with both CIPA and COPPA regulations, ensuring a safe tablet environment for kids and peace of mind for parents. The parental controls and safe web browsing is powered by Editions Profil, whose “Mobile Parental Filter” is ranked as the most efficient parental control software in worldwide benchmarks.

Availability & Price
The Child Pad will be available in stores starting the end of March with the recommended retail price of $129.

About ARCHOS

Archos, pioneer in the portable audio and video player market, and now specializing in Android tablets, has repeatedly revolutionized the market for consumer electronics since 1988. Today, ARCHOS offers Android Tablets, Tablet PCs and MP3/MP4 players. In 2000, ARCHOS launched the Jukebox 6000, the first MP3 player combined with a hard disk. Then in 2003 ARCHOS introduced the first portable multimedia players with TV recording. In 2006 Wi-Fi is implemented and then touch screens in 2007. In 2008, Archos launched the first generation Internet Tablets, and then the first ever Android powered tablets in 2009. ARCHOS has offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. ARCHOS is quoted on Compartment B of Eurolist, Euronext Paris, ISIN Code FR0000182479. Website: www.archos.com.